Shadow & Bone - Leigh Bardugo (A story easy to forget)

 This book gets a solid 3/5⭐️'s from me. "Why?" you might ask.

I read the book back in 2017 for the first time and honestly? I didn't remember 95% of it. I wanted to reread it because of the Netflix series coming out next month so that I can critically analyze everything they did differently from the book (yes, I'm really that kind of person). So I should have known not to expect too much from the story if I forgotten it after only 3 years...

The characters are absolutely plain. Alina, our main character, has barely to no character development. She's just born 'special' with some sort of powerful magic that just summed up who she is. Her typical traits? I don't know. What does she like? I don't know. There is no specific way to describe her at all. What makes her, her? I don't know. 

Mal is another character I don't understand. He goes from being a 'player' to 'I cannot live without Alina' in like 1 second after she showed powers? Dude, don't be that hopeless haha. Also, you only liked her when she was gone all of the sudden and showed some insane power making her 'super special'??? I didn't like him at all.

The Darkling is also a whole other figure. Should the reader be terrified of him? Like him? Have sympathy for him? Ship him with Alina? Like, I wasn't sure where he was on the enemy - friend scale towards Alina? We also got, like, 3 very confusing kissings-scenes from him. 1 was apparently a distraction kiss, 2 he was high on success and 3 he was kissing as revenge? WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO MAKE OUT OF THIS? This is not a love triangle I signed up for??? It lasted for about 70 pages...

To be honest, the only character I found intriguing was Genya and that only thanks to the bonus chapter I found at the end of the book. This chapter at least showed some complexity to a person with an internal conflict. I also know I'll like Zoya further on in the storyline, but the first book barely had scenes in it with her.

So why did the book still get 3⭐️'s? Easy. The setting of this world was amazing. Let's face it. It's a mixture of East and North European culture-vibes, which, I personally, love so much. Additionally, the setup of the story is good. The concept of Grisha is amazing and has a lot of potentials. I know, because I LOVED Six of Crows where the world is more expanded of this universe. So that's why it's still getting as many stars like this. 

I will continue to read the books, just in the hopes of getting soon to Six of Crows, which are the ultimate best-written books of Leigh Bardugo. 

xoxo, peace out
Elke